Representation in a music video

A lot like the key convention, each music video genre has their own representation of certain things, for example gender and ethnicity.


Indie pop:

Most of the time in this genre, women are seen to be either heart breakers, or elements of beauty, for instance, in the song 'Tenerife sea ' by indie pop artist Ed Sheeran, 'You look so wonderful in your dress.  I love your hair like that, and in that moment I knew you best' is rather clear he is talking about her physical beauty, as well as her inner beauty as he knew her best in that moment, showing connotations of his understand and love for this woman. Another example from this artist can be seen from his hit single 'Don't' which looks at women being heart breakers 'but it was never just fun and I thought you were different' and also with the line 'don't f*** with my love' which is repeated throughout the song, can give I would say strong evidence this woman broke his heart.








This representation is looked to by other artists such as 'Passenger' and 'Daughter' with many songs based on their past experiences with love, the most common one known from both of these artists is 'Let her go'                                                           and            'Youth'
'Only know you love her when you let her go..' 'Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest'





Hip-Hop:

Women are represented within this genre to be images of beauty and looked to on the basis of 'to be seen and not heard' giving what I could only say as a band influence to younger generation on how to treat those of the opposite sex, none the less this is media and therefore the representation stands and is there for me to learn and evaluate. Seen in mostly every song, ranging from Jason Drulo to Jay-Z in the song 'Wiggle-Wiggle'  the lyrics 'Damn girl you have a bright future behind of you' and 'Cause you know what to do with that big fat butt, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.'  He talks about her physical feaures and nothing else. The lyrics from '99 Problems' by Jay-Z  'But a pussy havin' no goddamn sense, try an' push me' possibly doesn't talk about her as a thing of beauty, but does imply that she doesn't have any sense and is stupid, showing connotations of the idea 'seen but not heard'




Boy Bands:

Gender shown within this genre is similar of the two above, for instance from the same artist 5 Seconds of Summer the songs 'She looks so perfect' and 'Amnesia' both talk about girls differently. 'She looks so perfect standing there' which in itself looks at her as a thing of beauty and how she is admired by the band, following similar representation as of hip-hop on a lower level. 'Amnesia' however looks at the female as a heart breaker with connotations that the man still loves her, '...with the pictures on my phone, I'll admit I like to see them i'll admit I feel alone' and 'I wish that I could wake up with Amnesia and forget about the stupid little things, like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you...'




Within my music video I will looking at the representation of gender and love in a indie pop fashioned music video. How I will show this representation will mostly be within the use of colour, costume and the direction of the actors, for example who is more dominant out of the pairing with such things as screen time and who has more. My choice of actress consists of a tall, skinny blonde haired beauty, wearing red and lipstick which can be seen to be the "girl next door"

I have done this because "the girl next door" representation is quite a normal thing for society to be faced with, which allows the audience members to feel comfortable watching the music video, which would then lead to the audience member buying into the artist and their album. I have chosen a heterosexual couple because again it seems normal as it is a typical representation of a couple, which follows the same reasoning behind why I have chosen my actors. 

The idea of a music video is to escape your own world and to be obtained by the world of fictional characters, which I would like to think I have created, as although she does kill herself, the entire narrative can be seen to be very romantic, and an act of love that audience members would enjoy watching as they can relate to the characters emotional responses, for example " I can't believe he walked out, she loved him, and she couldn't live without him. It reminds me of Sally and Tom..." 

Also by doing this it has helped me to understand of how representation is shown in different genres and it has also allowed me to gather what representation I will be using and how.